the Elderly clear, so it does not need to do after your death, for you. Visiting a 70-Year-old has been sorted out.

For many people, a topic: in the course of a lifetime of accumulated clutter photo: Müller-Stauffenberg/imago

BERLIN taz | Barbara points to a Vase and a liqueur jar on your kitchen sideboard. Both are made of crystal glass, decorated with flowers and stars, maybe 15 inches tall. Rarely Barbara finds application for the liquor bottle. For the Vase never. It is the heirlooms are already 90 years old. In the closet you are standing in the front of the. "My parents have to get to the wedding day," she says, turning to the liquor bottle a little to the left and dust to the edge of the Vase with the finger pointing. "If I die, will you take my daughter's intended."

Barbara is 70 years old. Your last name does not want to read, given the privacy of the topic in the newspaper. In their bright three-room-apartment in Berlin-Köpenick, it looks tidy. In the living room a light chain, to the kitchen wall metal hanging signs with the messages "Peace, Love, Happiness" and simply "Love". In September, she decided to weed out. They held on to the question: does this make you happy or do you want to get rid of it?

similarly, on the question of Margareta Magnusson Is: will it make someone I know happy, if I pick? Magnusson is the author of the book "Mrs. Magnusson's art to arrange the last things of life." In it, she explains the concept of the so-called Death Cleaning. The tip: aged 65 and over to clean up, so it does not have to make after the death of the other for you.

So you don't burden loved ones such as children or siblings after the death in addition. In the Swedish Original it says döstädning. "Things to discard, if you feel that the time is approaching when you have to leave this world," explains Magnusson in her book the term. In Sweden it has become a Trend: For the Elderly, but also Younger – they are Death Cleaner.

Barbara stirred in your Cappuccino. "My children, I have not asked, what do you want to have, as far as I went," she says. "But my daughter knows where everything is located." With many of the things she had moved into the apartment, says Barbara. "I leave behind no mess." Magnusson's book has not read it. Nevertheless, Barbara's kind of clean up the Magnusson resembles. You pasted heirlooms with pieces of paper.

your narrow, Golden poetry album, which she maintains since 1956, carries a note in: "I would like to stay and be cared for." Siblings and Friends have immortalized there with awards, the Barbara today, memorizing can.

The most Difficult thing was the Desk. "Mom, I can't hear it, that you always have to clean up the Desk", to Barbara's have said to children your. After they had cleaned out the Rest of the apartment, she ventured to the table in the work room: "I didn't ask for my daughter, it was different. I needed a Anpikser.“

During Barbara by 45 years of work documents rummaged, sat her daughter next to her and motivated her. Duplicates of invoices and documents of 1992, all the way could. To be "the last remaining honest, this is the worst," says Barbara.

What is Barbara of the Desk, for the tool box or the bookshelf. Magnusson advises to make: The most Difficult thing in the end, just not with pictures or letters to start. Kids will dig later through photos, if the Death Cleaner the time was missing.

Magnusson recommends the own children. The impartial view from the outside could help. Her advice: If you are uncertain, you should come over a Person that you can ask questions like: Where do I return my books? It is important that you take your time for the Death Cleaning.

Barbara from sorted in your own pace. "I've laid everything out in a pile. All the clothes were there.“ Then she took out coats and Jackets from the cloakroom to a huge mountain that was. Some of the tops to put them on, and again, until she decided: The way I prefer anyway not so often.

Now, Barbara is wearing a pair of Jeans and a white shirt with stripes. Quite simply. She opens the wardrobe with a flourish. There are twelve jumpers, ten pants, and bed linen are perhaps. On the wardrobe rod is about twenty the top to hang parts. She closes the Cabinet, the hands on her legs: "I don't need fifty dresses."

Magnusson writes, how much money you saves by a minimalist life style. She advises, however, no new items to purchase. In Kitsch you could also in the shop window. The old man could sort out, by giving away, for example. So you save money that you would normally have spent for flowers or gifts.

By Death Cleaning the children to save later time and money: "If you are thinking of how much time is saved for your family, and your friends will be those you impose this burden, you will have the feeling that the effort is worth it, really", writes Magnusson.

Barbara believes in the concept of the Entrümpelns. Who had sorted his things, which would make it easier to focus on important things of life. "Of all the Ballast that we have accumulated by our consumer society, is enormous," she says. She grew up in the GDR and has experienced two social systems. Your experience: "Social contacts and a sense of humanity you have, if you have no consumer obligation."